Bloodstone
The Bloodstone is a red, crystalline sphere which houses the Goddess Shiva, which is capable of transforming any wish into reality, irrespective of the consequences. It is about 7.5 cm (approximately 3 in) in diameter. Beings who the gods wished to punish or otherwise preserve would be captured in small crystal globes. The Stone itself was an especially advanced version of these prison crystals designed by Forge for the express purpose of containing Shiva. The Capture Balls used by modern SENTINELs have their origins in these devices. However, the Bloodstone was unable to completely contain Shiva's incredible power, allowing any who held it access to her abilities as well as opening themselves up to its corruptive influence. While whoever held it could affect time and space in any way they wished, the more they used it the more hold it gained over them, corrupting them until they became hollow shells for the will of the Mad Goddess. For this reason it was deemed too dangerous to ever use and was kept hidden for much of its existence. The Celestial Adam, whose job it was to preserve the integrity of space time, was once asked why he constantly undoes the mischief of other Celestials but he allowed the Bloodstone, which grants that level of power, to remain in play. He stated that he considered removing it, but regardless of the level of power it possessed, it was still the mind of a material being directing that power, and therefore there was only so much damage it could really do. 'History' When Shiva went mad after absorbing an unknown power source, the gods each made singular attempts to stop her which failed. After she defeated Crash himself, When Shine fought his power mad mother, he used one of these devices to contain her, and sacrificed his life to seal her inside of it. He succeeded in containing the insane goddess, but her power was so great that it leaked out. Thereafter the small ball shaped crimson jewel would become a highly sought after prize. It was discovered that whoever held it had access to Shiva’s great power which granted virtual omnipotence and mastery over space and time, enabling the user to bring to life whatever they wished for. However, the more an individual used this power the more Shiva herself was able to infiltrate their mind until they became an empty shell for Shiva’s will. While most were either ignorant or uncaring to the drawbacks of using the Bloodstone, others could sense what it was from the getgo and reacted with disgust to it. Realizing the danger Shiva still represented, the High Lords took it and hid it away. However, when Crash discovered its existence, he went to war with them over it and would have succeeded in obtaining it had the sarans not turned on him. The respite for the High Lords was brief though, for after defeating Crash they turned their attention on the rest of the Universe and came after the High Lords for the Bloodstone. Despite being prepared to fight to the death over it, the High Lords were convinced by a mysterious oracle that the survival of the Universe depended on the Bloodstone ending up in the sarans’ hands. When presented to the Oversaran Sarada, who lead the saran army as King, he immediately recognized the foul aura of the stone. As the Oracle predicted, he decided that the Stone should never be used by anyone and set about hiding it. He gave it to his most stalwart brother Naru, who secreted it away. Sarada himself never knew the location, and later descendants of Naru knew of its location only through a series of complex clues he left behind. As time went on the Bloodstone came to be regarded as a myth and most thought it vanished with Sarada. The secret of the Bloodstone’s location was eventually uncovered by the twin heirs of Naru, Kakadora and Kayoken. They split the keys to it, with Kakadora taking a talisman of the Naru Clan and sending it away with his son Karyu (who would become known as the Earth Saran, John Nash) while Kayoken taught the spell to open the pocket dimension where it was kept to his daughters as a lullaby. Only when the two keys were used together would the Bloodstone become accessible. In this way they hoped to keep the Stone out of the reach of the Holy Ghost, since if he knew it still existed on Kazan he would search for it and become unstoppable. When Kakadora learned of a prophecy that the Holy Ghost would be killed by a son of Naru, he shared this with his brother and the two began making preparations for overthrowing the Holy Ghost. They sided with the heir to the Sarada Clan, Arisada. Having been alerted to the prophecy regarding his doom, the Holy Ghost Kakadora was still hunted and killed by the Ghost. This prompted Kayoken to consider giving his friend, Arisada. Unfortunately with one of the keys being sent away this was impossible. As the Holy Ghost closed in on him, Kayoken sold his daughters into slavery to save their lives and sent Arisada a message explaining that in order to retrieve the Stone, he would need both heirs of Naru. Eventually as both John and Kara were drawn into the conflict, they were able to retrieve the Bloodstone for Arisada. By finding the Crypt of Naru, John and Kara were able to open the Pocket Dimension where it was held. It dropped on the ground and was picked up by Thuro, who John knew wanted to use the Bloodstone to resurrect his people. John warily asked him what he was going to do, but Thuro handed the Stone to Dashora, saying that the Bloodstone was evil, and if he used that to resurrect his people, there was no telling what he’d actually get. However, the Stone was quickly stolen by the Holy Ghost, who also managed to capture Cain and kill Dashora. Thereafter the Rebellion immediately attacked the Ghost before he had a chance to use the Bloodstone, and he fell in battle to John, who shot off his hand when he tried to use the Bloodstone on him. Thereafter, the Stone came into Arisada’s possession, but like the others he realized the folly of relying on the Stone and hid it away. He decided to hide it on Earth, and made a secret trip there to do so. When the God King Crash re-emerged into the Universe, he came to Kazan looking for the Bloodstone, having been told by Sihara that Arisada had it. With John away in space looking for Cain, there were no Oversarans to stand up to Crash this time so Arisada tried to fight him himself. Crash easily defeated the Saran King, and using his psychic powers ripped the location of the Bloodstone from his mind. After destroying Kazan, he went to Earth to retrieve it. Ironically it was the same place that John had gone to after the group found Kazan destroyed (despite Crash leaving Kazan first, the Rocco II was much faster than the Providence and arrived on Earth two days before Providence despite leaving Kazan a day later). Thanks to Sihara and Breaker distracting the Magnificent 7, Crash managed to recover the Bloodstone without incident. Like others, he was able to sense the Stone’s drawbacks, but was convinced he could find a way to use it to restore the Light of the Gods to the Universe, which he’d believed had fallen into chaos without them. The Magnificent 7 gave chase and raided the Providence, but were unable to beat him and were forced to retreat. When the group later arrived on Drago intent on stopping Crash, he found himself once again facing Oversarans in John and Cain. John managed to push Crash to use 100% of his power, at which point he started to destabilize. At the last moment though he used the Bloodstone to remove the curse placed on him by his mother hundreds of thousands of years before and he regained the advantage against John. When Cain took the fight against Crash next, Crash appeared to be more powerful, but Cain’s fighting spirit and lack of fear, as well as his ability to impose fear onto Crash, won the day for him. Crash attempted to try to buy his life with the Bloodstone, but Cain, upon realizing there was nothing the Stone could give him that he wanted, decided to just end it as a threat and destroy it. He crushed it in his hand, and killed the astonished Crash. The pieces of the Bloodstone were recovered by agents from the Jehdan Imperium. These were sought by the Horde in order to bring Lilith back onto this plane of existence. As the Horde closed in on Tanthalas, the Bloodstone Shards were recovered by Princess Tei who fled with the 7 to Earth. Drake and the Horde followed them, and Tei was eventually rescued by a SENTINEL force that had arrived to destroy the Earth and wipe out the Horde. In doing so they also captured June, and in a rage the 7 turned their fury on both SENTINEL AND the Horde. In the melee, Drake absorbed the Shards to give himself a power up and open a portal to Hell. While he died believing he had failed his goddess, he had actually succeeded in infecting Kara with Lilith’s spirit. She would successfully manifest 5 years later when she would set her own plans into motion. By now, each of the 7 had taken a piece of the Bloodstone. When Lilith emerged into Kara, she gained control of her shard, and using its power of Kara’s shard, she summoned her 3 demonic lieutenants from Hell and sent them to recover the rest of the Stone. Beelzebub fell in combat to Cain, but Lilith managed to turn him by offering Kara’s safety and ended up with his Shard as well. With the Dark Prince under her power she set her plan into motion, as Sin and Amon recovered the Shards from the rest of the 7, except for Thuro and John, who Cain regarded as dangerous and took care of himself. Lilith revealed that she intended to restore the Bloodstone and summon Shiva, and use her to free Satan from his imprisonment in the deepest circle of Hell. In the icy river Cocytus, Satan is frozen. Lilith had encountered the frozen Devil millions of years ago when the boundaries between the planes were weaker and she had fallen in love with the sight of him. This enchantment was what lead her to deny Adam and side with the demons, which in turn got her sealed into Hell with them when Adam closed off the planes from one another. Recombining the Bloodstone, she summoned Shiva out of it and ordered her to open a gate to Hell. Cain chose this time to attack, and managed to drive Lilith from Kara’s body. He thereafter tried to fight Shiva, but found his attacks completely useless against the Mad Goddess. Lilith mocked him for his efforts and went to Hell. Shiva succeeded in getting Satan out of the ice, though upon release he revealed that he could have escaped anytime had he chosen to but hadn’t since there was no one worth killing. After fighting Cain and demonstrating his incredible power, he forced Shiva back into the Bloodstone and swallowed it, revealing that HE was the original source of the power that Shiva had bonded with and that her power was rightfully his. With the Bloodstone charging his powers, Satan once again had nigh omnipotence he had as an angel. He decided to carry out his original plan of destroying Creation and remaking it in his image, but found himself thwarted by the Magnificent 7. During the fight John managed to make him regurgitate the Bloodstone, and remembering something the Celestial Loki had told him about how before absorbing Satan’s power Shiva had been a wise and peaceful Goddess, decided to try to force the evil energy of the stone into good energy. Together, the 7 managed to purify the Bloodstone and turn its power on Satan, destroying him once and for all. Freed of all the hate and evil, Shiva’s spirit was finally free to ascend and she disappeared from this plane into Heaven. Thereafter the Bloodstone crumbled into dust, ending the hold of its power on the Universe once and for all.